1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gliding parachute made of flexible materials and having an upper and a lower parachute sheet, which parachute is inflatable by air flowing thereagainst to an air foil shape, of which the upper and lower parachute sheets form an air foil structure which is closed at its leading edge.
Such gliding parachutes or parachutes for parascending, respectively, can be used for the common jumping out of an airplane but find specific use in the ground running start operation on mountains or hills or also for a starting by means of a winch. During the starting phase such gliding parachutes which are composed of flexible materials, such as of air impermeable webs of woven materials, are inflated to the shape of a supporting body by the air flow flowing thereagainst.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In order to pressurize and to inflate the gliding parachute during the starting phase within a short time span, generally known gliding parachutes, such as disclosed, for instance, in the published German patent application DE-OS No. 37 07 463, have an open leading edge through which air streams rapidly into the inner space of the air foil profile structure. It is generally known that such gliding parachutes feature a relatively high resistance and a relatively poor angle of descent.
Accordingly, attempts were made to locate the pressurizing openings away from the leading edge, i.e. to close the front side of the profile completely off. When such gliding parachute is in its inflated state, sort of an air foil wing is formed having an upper parachute sheet and a lower parachute sheet and a completely closed leading wing edge.
Such an air flow wing generates in its inflated condition a considerable lift and features a considerably flatter angle of descent.
A problem encountered during the use of a gliding parachute designed as set forth above is that the parachute is oftentimes not filled rapidly and suffiently safely with air during the start, which obviously detrimentally influences the starting procedure or even prevents a starting at all.